File No. 812.00/6552.
The American Consul at Ciudad Porfirio Díaz to the Secretary of State.
Ciudad Porfirio Díaz, March 7, 1913.
I presented your instruction of March 7 to the Consul at Saltillo, in cipher, at the telegraph office. Colonel Carranza, chief of the State volunteers in this district, personally absolutely refused to forward it, and personally ordered the telegraph operator to refuse it. He told me that no telegram to consuls or others would be accepted if in cipher or any other code; that they would be transmitted only when in easily understood Spanish or English. I then sent to the telegraph office a telegram in plain English addressed to American Consul, Saltillo, covering your instructions of today relative to interruptions of telegram from Consulate and Embassy or Department, and that also was refused. The colonel was very abrupt and personally told me in Spanish that your instruction would not go forward because of its contents and he clearly understood that you are Secretary of State of the United States.